Sharing a nursery? Pros and cons?

Guillerma · December 2012

We have a DD who will be 21 months when this new LO arrives. We love our nursery currently- it is directly connected to our room which was great for late night wakings and it has wonderful built in closets. Our other bedroom is way in the back of our house, and it is impossible to hear anything back there. Baby monitors don't work well through the brick wall that the room has (it was an addition to our house at one point) and all in all I'm not really comfortable having a toddler back there. Likely when she is older she will move back there.

With DD 1 we planned to have her sleep in our room until 5-6months but neither of us slept well until she moved into her crib in her room. She moved in at about 3 weeks and never looked back. Maybe it will work better this time, but I doubt it.

Basically, is it realistic to have a newborn sharing a room with an almost 2year old? Well they wake each other up? Will she bug the LO?

Pros and cons of sharing a room? Does it make any difference if they are same sex or not?

imimahoney · December 2012

I only have 1 child so I can't speak to sharing a room but my DS was up every 2 hours eating for the first 4 weeks of his life. He would then wake every 4 hours... crying every time. His naps were inconsistent until recently and had to be bounced and loudly shushed to sleep. We sleep trained at 5.5 months and he cried for 3 nights. Not long at all but still cried.

Would your DD be able to sleep through that? I would think sharing a room would be very inconvenient for her.

gimmietimmies · December 2012

We did this with our three youngest up till last year. It was brutal. Whoever was the infant at the time ended up napping in our room until they were close to a similar nap schedule, like 8-12 months old. If lo napped in their room, no one could go in and play, and we had a smaller house with no play room. There was bugging and waking up of siblings on purpose, it drove me nuts. They have their own rooms now and I'm happy with it.

I know sharing works for other people, it didn't for us.

sarahbeth827 · December 2012

We plan on having our kids share a room when we have a 2nd LO. We plan on having the nursery be a "sleep only" room since we will have a playroom for all the toys. We will also have a pnp in case the newborn needs to nap in another room if the toddler isn't cooperating.

jobiann · December 2012

FTM here but common sense tells me the infant would wake your DD up way too often. That wouldn't be good for her or for you. Either infant should be in your room and DD in hers or infant in DD's old room and DD in a new one.

mbgreenwalt · December 2012

My girls share. We did keep DD2 in our room for 6 months and she was sleeping through the night when we moved her. They very rarely wake each other and it has been fine for us. We have 4 bedrooms, but 2 are on the lower level and I don't feel comfortable having DD1 on a different level than us.

brianabrad · December 2012

FTM here but my coworker has two kiddos in the same room. She said the only bad thing was with her youngest she was never able to use the cry it out/self sooth method because DD was in the room and DS would have woken her. She said its also harder when one is sick because the coughing, etc can wake or keep the other awake. She makes it work though but I do think its probably a little more work than if both kiddos had their own rooms.

CarlaAndJames · December 2012

my older daughter is a great sleeper and there is just no way I could deal with her having to be woken up every few hours bc she has a crying baby 5 feet away from her. I'll be tired enough without dealing with a chronically exhausted 2 year old.

Soleil3 · December 2012

My oldest was 15 months when DD2 was born, and she slept through anything DD2 could put out. If you have the crib in your room the first few months it'll probaby be fine

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